


Land or Sea

by NullanyThorm



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, MerMay, MerMay 2020, tones of canon/oc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24044671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NullanyThorm/pseuds/NullanyThorm
Summary: As Varian is experimenting on the rocks to uncover their secrets, an accident leads to an unexpected result. As his legs transform into a fin and he's transformed into a mermaid, his father has little choice but to send him out to the ocean. Left out on his own, Varian wallows in his own loneliness and tries to leave his old home and alchemy behind him - but when a sunny merboy finds his way to the shipwreck Varian calls home, everything changes.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Land or Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mermaid Varian AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/616489) by Nyxglitch. 



> So, I hope you like this! I was inspired to work on this by a post on tumblr by Nyxglitch. However, I wanted to put my own spin on her idea, and worked together with a friend to bring our own OCs into the mix and have some fun with the premise. It's basically a canon divergence where instead of Quirin getting trapped in the amber, Varian is taken away from alchemy due to its effect on himself - turning into a merman. I'm already planning a full fic for this idea once I'm done with the works I'm currently writing - but since it's Mermay I thought I'd post this as a fun oneshot and preview of what's to come. I hope everyone likes it!

“Alright, so we haven’t gotten the reactions we wanted. What’s important is that we  _ got _ a reaction. Let’s keep this up, team.” 

Her eyes followed him as he went about concocting another of his formula. She scooped Ruddiger up off the table he’d been standing on, running her fingers through his soft fur to help calm her nerves. The smile he gave her as he held up a vial of bright teal liquid helped, but not much. She felt her stomach tying itself in knots as he hovered over one of the rocks to test it. 

Sure, she’d agreed to help him - she was his assistant! She really did feel like if anyone (other than the princess) could figure these rocks out, it would be him. Still, the way he ran into this headlong made her nervous. 

“B-Be careful, Varian. Okay?”

“Oh, come on, Charlotte!” His casual scoff and the soft laughter that peppered his words didn’t help to soothe her concerns that much. “Since when did you know me to be anything but careful in my experiments?”    
  
“Flynnolium - ”

Varian stopped in his tracks - and hastily cleared his throat. The way his voice cracked when he spoke never failed to make her have to hold in giggles. She could tell he wasn’t too happy at the point she’d made. “Okay, I’ll give you that point. Still. If we’re getting reactions, that means we’re close to figuring this out. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

So he moved back to the rock. He slowly hovered the beaker over it, attempting to slowly drip the substance over the top of the rock. Her breath caught as she did so, squeezing Ruddiger for support. Oh god, what kind of effect would this one have? The last one burst into flames for crying out loud!

“Son, I - ”

And it seemed she’d never find out the answer to that question. Before he could drip the solution onto the rock, Quirin walked into the room. Varian wheeled around, and a crashing sound was heard as the beaker fell to the ground. The solution pooled at Varian’s feet and she dropped Ruddiger, wanting to pull him out of it before something happened. She screamed at her body to move, but she just stared. Dumbstruck. 

“Varian. I told you to stay away from those rocks.”

“Okay. Yeah. I know what you said, but - ”

“Then there shouldn’t be any confusion.” He pulled Varian away from the rocks, but not out of the pool of teal liquid that was spreading across the floor. She could have sworn there wasn’t quite that much in the beaker - but it pooled enough to come into contact with the base of the rock, and since then had been spreading. It wasn’t at Quirin’s feet, or at hers, but somehow it seemed like the puddle wouldn’t let Varian leave it. “Listen, Varian.”

“No, you listen to me, dad!” Varian pushed his father away, backing up even further into the pool, and Charlotte wondered why her body would move and let her reach over to pull him out. She just… had a bad feeling about it. “Look… These rocks aren’t going away! Just running away from them isn’t going to solve the problem!”

“I know, Varian.” Varian’s father was balling his fists, and he turned away from the two of them. Charlotte bit her lower lip, not wanting Varian and his dad, who usually got along so well (well, outside of when it came to Varian’s alchemy), to fight like this. “Look. There’s more to these rocks than you know, son - ”

“So tell me!”

“You’re not ready, Varian!” His dad argued back. “Just stop these dealings with the rocks, it’s dangerous! Worse is the fact that you’re pulling Charlotte into it, too! I won’t let you children endanger yourselves.” He put his hands on Varian’s shoulders, firmly trying to get his son to look him in the eye, but Varian turned away.    
  
Charlotte, her mind bidding her to move or speak but her body not responding, could only stand there quietly as if divided from the scene by a pane of glass. 

“I’m just trying to help!” Varian recoiled backwards, pushing his way free of his father’s arms. “These things are a danger to the Kingdom! To our village! I just want to - ” The rest of his words would never find their way to his lips. Instead, they were cut off by a bloodcurdling scream as Varian dropped to the ground. Charlotte wanted to break, hearing them. She watched him shift, and squirm inside the puddle. She tried to rush to his side, but fear and heartbreak stilled her legs after a few rushed steps (though at least she’d managed that much).    
  
Unable to do much of anything, she stood there and watched as her closest friend writhed in pain - and all she managed to accomplish was the cascade of silent tears running down her face. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Varian!”

His father’s voice barely registered. All he knew was pain. It was needling his way up his legs and waist, like he was being stabbed by daggers along the whole of his lower half. It was all he felt - he didn’t know what was happening, but it felt like his legs had gone limp. They didn’t respond to him, and they were in so. Much. Pain.    
  
“Varian!”

He could still hear his dad calling him. He was being picked up - the upper half of his body, at least, was registering the feeling of one of his father’s hands along his back. He felt like he was being lifted , he was suddenly much closer to his dad’s face now at least. He writhed around a little, but kept looking into his dad’s eyes - they were frantic, but somehow they still calmed him down.

“Dad, I - ”

“It’s okay, Varian.” His father’s words were a bit more soothing, now. He didn’t seem to be screaming anyway, but that made it harder to process what he was saying through the pain in the bottom half of his body. “Just calm down. You don’t need to talk... Charlotte.”

He didn’t hear Charlotte speak, but he assumed she must have because his father was turning to face her - well he thought it was her. His vision was getting a bit blurry. It hurt. Too much. He was getting dizzy. He heard something about glass and tools, but he felt like the entire world around him went dizzy, and his mind was racing. With this much pain - it wasn’t a surprise he blacked out not long after. 

When he came to, he was no longer in pain. However, he felt cold, and the entire lower half of his body seemed to have gone numb. He was laying across the ground, stomach down… was that sand he felt underneath him? It definitely wasn’t the floors of his lab, or house. Then he realized… where were his clothes? When he looked down to investigate the sand, his arms and hands were completely bare, and as he sat up he saw the whole of his torso was. Not only that, but his movement felt weird… was he underwater? But that wasn’t right - if he was underwater, he shouldn’t be breathing right now….

Right?

Charlotte hurried forward, tears pulling in her honey-gold eyes. He couldn’t hear what she was saying, but she pressed her hands against… glass? Was he behind a pane of glass? 

“Charlotte, hey. Don’t cry, I’m okay.” Seeing his usually cheerful, optimistic assistant like this sent a pang of sadness through him. He hadn’t meant to worry her. He wasn’t sure she could hear him - she was still talking, herself, as if he hadn’t said anything. Still, he tried his best to give her a reassuring smile. “I don’t hurt, see?”

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw his dad pointing upwards. Huh? He followed the finger and looked up, and that was when he realized - he was definitely underwater. He could see the light flickering through, bending in ways that didn’t make sense unless water was refracting them. Take that with the fact that Charlotte was pressing her hands against some invisible thing, that was probably glass, and that meant… 

He was in some kind of tank?

He moved to swim upward, but it was hard for him to push off the bottom - his lower half wasn’t responding the way he wanted it to. It made big, clunky movements, like the whole lower half of his body was moving at once. That was when he finally looked down at his legs, and realized they weren’t really legs at all anymore.    
  
No doubt Charlotte and his dad couldn’t hear him, but he let out a rather loud scream in panic at that. He heard his own voice cracking and flailed his newly-discovered fin around frantically. He had… A fin! A long, slim, fish-like fin covered with black scales that had a teal-colored sheen to them. He sunk back to the bottom of his tank, which his father had no doubt probably rushed to put together in a panic, and flipped his fin a little more to examine it. 

Oh god, why did it suddenly feel like he couldn’t breath? He labored as hard as he could - deep breath in, deep breath out, and tried to calm his incredibly frantic breathing and heartbeat. What was he supposed to do as a half-fish!? How had this happened!? 

He turned back towards Charlotte, still in tears and pressing her hands desperately against the wall of the tank. And his dad, a melancholy expression as the man looked down at him from behind her. He gulped down his nerves and tried his best to paddle his way upward with his fin, making his way to the top of the water and seeing he was able to push his body to hang over the top of the tank. 

“What happened!?”

“We’re as clueless as you are, Varian,” his dad responded, gently placing a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder to calm her down. “We assume it had something to do with that experiment of yours.”

“W-What!? But… If my experiment caused this, then that means it wound up completely different from what I was planning!” He frantically grasped at his hair, feeling like he wanted to pull it out. How could an error in calculations cause this big a difference in the effect of the compound? How could one little miscalculation cause something like this. “I-I don’t understand! I need to re-run my calculations. Figure out what went wrong, maybe find a way to turn back.”

“Well what do you expect me to do!?” Varian responded, flipping his fin about frantically. “Live the rest of my life in a slapped-together fish tank!?”

“Well… I was planning...” His father began, and he had the expression on his face that told Varian he probably wasn’t going to like what his father was going to say. He seemed to be bracing himself for a bad reaction. “On taking you out to the ocean once the storm passed.”

“Y-You can’t expect me to do that, dad!” How did these things always turn into arguments? Still, he wasn’t just going to leave his home! He couldn’t! Not when it was on the brink of disaster. “D-Dad, I can’t leave you. I can’t leave Charlotte! I promised Rapunzel I’d help her, too! I can’t leave any of you and go live in the ocean.”

“It’s that, or I have to keep you in that tank, Varian. And I don’t want that for you.”

“You could let me look into that solution I made! Figure out how to change myself back.” He was desperate, and he could hear it in his own voice. He was grasping at straws, he knew, but he’d rather have a chance of success than give up and get sent out to the ocean. “I-If I need help moving around Charlotte can help and - ” 

“Varian!” Oh god, he was yelling again. Well, Varian had started yelling first so he couldn’t really blame him this time, but still. “I will not permit you to go back to that lab. Experimenting on yourself? You were just messing with those rocks and look what happened! What if experiments on yourself go wrong?”

“I’m willing to take that risk if it means - ”

“Well I’m not, Varian!” Was dad… was he crying? “I’m not going to risk letting something happen to you! Look. You’re not to go to your lab. That’s final. I’m making a lid for your tank to keep you from getting any smart ideas - and once the storm passes, you’re going out to the ocean.”

“But dad -!”

“That’s final! You must still be in pain from growing that fin, get some rest.”

With that, he hung his head, and left the room. The door closed with a resounding  _ slam! _ , and left himself and Charlotte alone in the room. 

“Charlotte, I - ”

“I-I’m sorry, Varian.” Her voice cracked and she was still crying. Her voice was soft, meek, almost like she didn’t want to be heard - it broke his heart. “I… I agree with your dad. I don’t want you to hurt yourself - ”

“B-but Charlotte, I can’t leave you. I don’t want to.” He reached a hand out to place on her cheek - it mingled with her dark brown hair and dampened it, but neither of them really cared. “Please, while dad’s making the lid we can sneak down to my lab and - ”

“I don’t want you to leave, either, Varian,” she responded. The warmth he felt as her hand came up and touched his seemed to make the cold from the water in his tank melt away. Her eyes and voice were both pleading with him, and it made him want to crumble. “I… I don’t want to lose you. At least… At least if we take you out to the ocean I’ll know you’re safe.”

“B-but what about you?” He pleaded back. “What about dad? What about Corona!? None of you are safe - I can’t just run to the ocean and let you all handle it when I  _ promised _ I’d help Rapunzel unlock the secret of these rocks.”

“I… I’ll practice. I’ll study.” Charlotte’s voice was weak and uncertain, unsure, but she looked up at him with those big saucers she had for eyes and gripped his hand tight. “I’ll get better at alchemy, and I’ll help her. I promise.”

And what could he say to that? There wasn’t exactly much he could do if Charlotte wasn’t willing to help him, either. He sighed and sank back down, barely hanging over the tank. 

“Then…. Take care of Ruddiger for me,” he requested. Finally giving in - Charlotte was on his dad’s side, after all. There was no more use in trying to argue his point. He knew… He knew they were just looking out for him. Still, he felt like he was getting torn in two, thinking of having to leave all of this behind. “And… Tell the princess I’m sorry I couldn’t help. And, let everyone know what happened, and… Charlotte, I - ”

“It’s okay, Varian. You don’t need to say anything.” She smiled. She was trying so hard to smile, but she was still crying despite the fact. “I… I’ll protect Old Corona, and Corona itself, in your stead. I promise.”

“You’re the best assistant any alchemist could ask for - ” he responded. He hoisted himself up over the tank and, even though it was getting her soaking wet, Charlotte didn’t make any move to step away when he wrapped his arms around her. “And the best friend any boy could want.”

“Varian I… I lo-”

“Hm?” Charlotte had paused in the middle of her sentence, and Varian couldn’t help tilting his head, curiously. He looked into those bright gold eyes that had intrigued him from the day the two of them met, and gave her a gentle smile. “What is it, Charlotte?”

“I’m just glad I met you.” She seemed to settle on with a smile. “I hope you stay safe, out there in the ocean.”

“Y-Yeah… I’m going to miss you, Charlotte.”

“I’ll miss you, more.”

“I’ll miss you, most.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Varian  _ what? _ ” The incredulous tone of Eugene’s question drove the wounds even deeper into her heart. She’d hardly waited, after sending Varian off into the ocean, to go to the castle to have a word with Rapunzel and her friends. They needed to know what happened - but as expected, it was still hard to talk about. 

“It happened during the storm.” She did her best to keep her tone flat, and not let her voice waver. Still, she had a hard time looking anywhere but at the floor - her head felt heavy as she talked. “It was an experiment on the rocks gone wrong, and - we sent him out into the ocean just last night.”

She petted Ruddiger’s fur to soothe her. He was the last thing she had left of Varian - him and Varian’s old lab were hers, now, and she needed to look after them. She  _ would _ look after them. Still, it felt like she was going to break any second.

“Oh, Charlotte...” Rapunzel wrapped her up in a big hug. It was soft, and warm, and honestly Charlotte was glad to have the closest thing to a big sister she and Varian ever had there to reassure her. “You must be going through so much right now. We’re all here to support you, okay?”

“Thanks, Rapunzel.” She gave a meek smile, allowing Ruddiger to climb from her arms onto her shoulders. Between these two reassuring friends, she knew that eventually she’d be okay. “I promised him I’d get better at alchemy. I want to help you guys in his place.”

“Well, you  _ were _ always following after him. You were like his personal little shadow.” She knew there was a tone of levity in his voice that told her he was joking. Still, he was definitely right. Now that Varian was gone, she was absolutely clueless on what to do next - and she knew that was a bad time. 

“I guess I have to upgrade from shadow then,” she settled on. “It might take a while, though.”

“Well, you’re not going to get over losing him this early.” Cassandra gave her a pet on the head and gave Eugene a good elbow to the side. It almost made her laugh a little bit, seeing the two of them acting the same as always. “Wanting to help Corona is great, but don’t forget to focus on yourself in all this.”

“Yeah!” Rapunzel responded. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Eugene or Cassandra so suddenly - We’re not expecting you to push yourself right away. Take your time and improve, and we’ll be here to support you all the way.”

“Still, thinking about Varian, all alone out there in the ocean.” Cass took in a deep breath and paced around. She was, after all, the member of the group other than Charlotte who was closest to Varian. It made sense she was worried. “Like, that kid is helpless - is he going to be okay?”

“Varian’s not helpless.” Charlotte reassured. “He’s resourceful. Clever. I’m not worried about him. Honestly, I’m more worried about myself...”

“Oh, you’ll be fine.” Eugene gave her a big hug and ruffled her hair. “You’re a dedicated girl. A quick study. You’ll get the hang of alchemy in no time, and even outside it you’ll find a way to help. You’ve got all the time in the world to start thinking of yourself and finding your niche.”

“Alright!” Rapunzel responded with a smile. “So. What’s the next step in saving Corona? We know the rocks are spreading, and with my parents back in the kingdom I can work towards figuring out their secrets more.”

“Honestly, I’m pretty sure we’re clueless,” Eugene reasoned. “I mean, we were preoccupied with the storm - and the one kid who was actually trying to learn anything is now swimming with the fishes - literally.”

“So, we’re just going to have to wait?” Charlotte felt her stomach sinking at that. How much time, exactly, did they have to ‘wait it out’? How long could they get away with it, with the way the rocks were moving?

“Unfortunately.” Cass responded. “As it is - I couldn’t get many details from the other guards, but our biggest concern should be a prison break that was staged while the guards and palace were concerned with the storm.”

“Prison break!?” Eugene yelped, and it caused Charlotte to recoil. He  _ was _ standing right next to her, after all, and that loud yelp went straight to her eardrums. It wasn’t exactly pleasant. “Why didn’t you say something about this sooner?”

“I just told you the guards wouldn’t give me that many details!” Cass quipped back. “They wouldn’t even tell me who all broke out. Just that if they don’t track them down, it might be trouble later.”

“Alright then.” Rapunzel responded with a deep breath. “Then keep an eye out for anyone suspicious. Charlotte, we know you’ll do great at perfecting alchemy. We already know we can trust you, so take as much time as you need to get better.”

“Yeah. Just leave that prison break to us, and focus on research and improvement.” Eugene wrapped his arm around her shoulders, which startled Ruddiger into jumping down and circling her feet. “We’re counting on you to help us with those rocks.”

“I’ll do my best!” Having the support of everyone else definitely helped her feel more confident about her practicing. She still felt like a pretty heavy weight was on her shoulders, but it had lightened a little bit. She had big shoes to fill - funny, since Varian was actually pretty small. Still, he had a genius mind - and hers was, well, average. “I’ll keep an eye out for any news on the prison break, too.”

“Atta girl.” Cassandra playfully (and lightly, making sure not to hurt her) punched at her shoulder. “You’re tougher than you give yourself credit for. You’ll do Varian proud, you’ll see.” 

“I sure hope so…. ”

She was ecstatic the others believed in her so much - but she still felt like she was drowning and struggling to keep her head above water. Though, really - that was probably a bit of an ironic metaphor, considering what she was dealing with at the moment. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Could dust collect underwater? He wasn’t really sure, himself, especially considering the decrepit old shipwreck he called ‘home’. It was molded over in places, and even though it had a bunch of old books that he could have had fun researching - well, it was underwater. With all the holes and such, it didn’t take much for the whole thing to be filled with seawater, so books were useless. 

It was difficult for him, getting used to life underwater. He’d lost count of how long he’d been there, but it had to have been at least a few weeks, now. He’d been alone for almost the entire duration so far.    
  
It wasn’t that he was the only of his kind down there - far from it, it seemed like merfolk had a whole kingdom of their own underwater. However, not many of them had believed him when he’d claimed to be from the surface whenever he was asked ‘where did you come from?’, so he’d started being seen as something of an oddity. It was impossible for merfolk to live above water - or for humans to turn into merfolk. They just shrugged it off with excuses like that and left him be. 

So now, it was just him, his shipwreck, and his fish traps. 

He’d been fascinated to learn that merfolk came in two varieties: herbivorous and omnivorous. Apparently, there was a time long ago where underwater plant life had been scarce due to overeating, or something along those lines. A small group of merfolk chose to ignore their skill at communicating with ocean life and made the difficult decision to begin hunting due to lack of food - and as a consequence lost the skill entirely. 

Well, he’d never had that skill in the first place, but it was an interesting story he’d been told.

Still, it definitely got lonely - he’d become something of a hermit, now. He just holed himself up in the ship he called home, spending most of his time thinking back to his old friends. He couldn’t continue his alchemic research - he needed heat and fire sources for basically all his work and that was impossible underwater. So, he just lived flying solo, no longer trying to reach out to other merfolk and instead focusing on just getting through each day. 

It wasn’t exactly the most  _ rewarding _ lifestyle, but he had little choice in the matter. 

“‘M hungry...” He grumbled a little to himself and swam out to check his traps. He’d started doing that, narrating the situation or mumbling to himself, because he was alone so much he was afraid of forgetting what his own voice sounded like otherwise. “Might as well see if I caught anything...”

Unfortunately - he’d come out to his traps to see them filled to the brim with kelp instead of fish. Scribbled in the sand was ‘better luck next time, hermit boy’, and he was officially fuming. If they wanted nothing to do with him so much, how was it that things like this always happened!? Well, he guessed it was just kelp again today - fun. He began pulling together the kelp and nonpoisonous flowers from his traps, grumbling to himself all the while. 

At least, until a few fish were dropped down in the small bundle of grasses in front of him. His eyes darted up to see what was happening to see a boy swimming just slightly overhead. He was holding up a small bundle of fish with him, and smiling down at him - what was going on here?

“Hey there! Uh, so I tried to stop those guys earlier…. ” He swam down near his traps and swept the message away with his fin. “But they wouldn’t really listen… so I thought it would be faster to just go out and hunt some more fish for you - want to eat together?”

This… This was a trick, right? This boy had a sunny enough demeanor, but so did some of the other merfolk who messed with him. He’d let the boy into his shipwreck to eat with him, then he’d have the entirety of his food taken from him and he’d have to go out and look for it - 

“Not interested.”

“Oh come on!” As Varian went to swim back into his home, the boy followed. He was persistent - but Varian couldn’t bring himself to accept it. His path was cut off, though, as the boy swam in front of him. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for forever! This was my first chance, come on.”

“You wanted to talk to me?” His comment was surprisingly dry for them being so underwater - though that was probably a lame joke. He turned, disbelief apparent on his face as he looked into the cheerful green eyes that reminded him far too much of someone else. “You realize who I am, right?”

“You’re the boy from the surface, right?” Those green eyes lit up like a candle as he spoke - add in the pale blond hair and the similarity was striking. Add the freckles and it was just eerie. Was someone trying to mess with him? “I’ve wanted to ask you about it for sooo long, but my parents don’t like it when I adventure too far from home. What’s the surface like? What kind of human were you? What kind of people did you know? Let’s talk about it over lunch, come on!”

“You… actually believe me about that?”

“I mean, if you were lying, I think you would have stopped when other merfolk started ostracizing you - ” Oh, so this one was actually sensible, despite his hyperactive personality making it seem otherwise. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him for a little while. “I’m Caspian! I’ve always been curious about what life on the surface is like.”

“Alright, alright, come in.” Varian motioned the boy inside his little shipwreck, and decided to talk with him. There was no harm, right? It had been a while since he’d properly talked to anyone, anyway. “I’m Varian, by the way.”

“Caspian! It’s nice to meet you.”

The two of them ate and talked. The more Varian got to know Caspian, the more he couldn’t help but compare him to Rapunzel. There were only three things that seemed different about them - Caspian was a boy, probably wasn’t any form of royalty, and his skin had an olive tan to it that made his freckles harder to perceive sometimes. Still, he was energetic, free-spirited, and loved telling Varian about the few adventures he’d managed to have when escaping from his overprotective parents.    


“You hunt sharks!?”

“Shark is delicious - ” Caspian responded with a shrug. “I only actively hunt the more common kinds, though. I usually just eat fish.”

“So those things on your necklace….”

“Shark fangs!” The blond grinned at him, laughing as Varian was rendered speechless. He imagined the look on his face must have been something to see, if Caspian’s reaction was anything to go by. “So hey, that ‘alchemy’ thing you did on the surface - can you show it to me!?”

“Huh? No - I gave up on alchemy after getting sent out to the ocean. I… Don’t really do that anymore.” Even if he wanted to - he couldn’t. The ocean wasn’t exactly a place that could sustain the environment he needed for his research. 

“I’m really curious about it, though. I want to know more about you - and the surface.”

“I need dry land to practice alchemy,” he responded, irritably. He wasn’t quite yelling, but he needed to be assertive and get Caspian to stop asking him - he didn’t want to think about alchemy right now. “Besides, it was alchemy that got me stuck like this. Away from my family, closest friends, stuck alone at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Well, yeah, but thanks to that we met right?” Caspian circled him and took his hand, pulling him out of his shipwreck. “Come on! I want to show you something!”

“Caspian!? Hey, wait - ”

Caspian didn’t listen - something that he seemed to be quite fond of doing. He dragged Varian out, and the former alchemist had to hold in his screaming - Caspian was able to swim so much faster than him. Granted, he wasn’t surprised from someone who hunted sharks and was always exploring coves and shipwrecks.    
  
He led him to a tunnel - a long one. When Varian asked what use bringing him to a tunnel was, Caspian just shrugged it off by saying “it’s not the tunnel, it’s where the tunnel leads. Come on!” and dragging him off again. 

“Caspian I swear, would you just tell me where you’re taking me!?”

“That ruins the surprise though - You’ll see!”

And oh, he certainly saw. When they hit the end of the tunnel, they hit a huge underwater cavern with all sorts of weird rock fixtures. When Caspian pulled him above water, though - that was when he really saw what he was getting at. It wasn’t just an underwater cavern - it was an underground cave. 

The cave was filled with water. However, the rock formations he’d seen below the water stretched out to form small islands in the huge underground lake they were swimming around in. It was… amazing. He could set tables, tools, all sorts of things along those little islands of rock and ground. This could… it could be his new lab. 

“Okay, so I could show you alchemy here, but I still don’t have the tools I need.” He crossed his arms, determined to shrug Caspian off. The thought was nice, but it was easier on him if he could just… pull away from his old life as much as possible. “It’s  _ impossible _ , Caspian.”

“I’m sure there’s some shipwreck around here with the things we’d need.” He gave a small grin. “I don’t know much about this stuff, though, so you’d have to come with me so I know what you need.”

“Why are you so determined to do this?”

“I mean… I heard about you before, and I thought meeting you would be interesting.” The blond gave a small hum, scratching his head as if to force words out of his mouth, unable to really phrase what he was trying to explain. “When I actually met you, though… You seemed kind of lonely. You don’t actually like the way you’re living, do you? Then why not work together and have a little fun?”

“Still, just searching shipwrecks for materials? It could be dangerous - ”

“I’ll protect you!” Caspian drew the trident off of his back. “I’m pretty skilled with this - I could teach you how to use a spear too, consider it my way of paying you for satiating my curiosity. It’d be easier to get food if you could spear hunt instead of relying on traps, right?”

Varian sighed, but he imagined he must be smiling because Caspian pulled him into a big hug. Honestly, his cheer was infectious - and they’d only just met. “All right, Caspian. You have a deal. Help me find what I need, if there’s any around, and I’ll teach you a little about alchemy.”

“Awesome! I guess that means we’re friends now!” He grinned, and Varian couldn’t be mad at him - maybe this was for the better. He was done moping now, and he could find a way to fix his mess and return to the surface - to Charlotte, Rapunzel, Eugene, Cass, his dad… He needed to do this. 

“Alright, fine. Friends.”


End file.
